World war 3....

I don't think Putin wants just that. He is on record as believing that Ukraine is not a real country, merely a region of Russia. He had a puppet leader there who got thrown out by the electorate, which enraged Putin. Despite that, for some bizarre reason he thought that his army would waltz into Ukraine and be welcomed as liberators, bringing them back into the fold.
But, as you say, he's making a pig's ear of it either way. You have to question the information he was being given. This is what happens with dictators - people close to them tell them what they think they want to hear, not what they need to be told

 

I agree it is not going as well as Putin thought but the comment was made a few weeks ago when many including myself thought it would be a matter of bulldozing forward crushing any resistance in their way, it looks like Putin and his aids got it very wrong.

 

What a senseless waste of life (on both sides) , ruin of people’s lives and destruction. A story as old as time where war is concerned. It’s absolute BS them saying they’ve reached their objective. Clearly bit off more than they can chew.

 

Very embarrassing from Russia. Can’t even take Ukraine (15x smaller army), they’re a joke.

 

Phase 1: Invade Ukraine. Completed.

Phase 2: Come up with plan to minimise the humiliation of getting our arses handed to us by yet another smaller country.

Phase 3: Withdraw citing a glorious victory for the mighty Russia and tell the nation how proud of their sacrifice you are.

Phase 4: Leave the plebs to pick up the pieces while having to bury their dead.

How to be a great leader, by Vladimir Putin coming to all good Russian book shops in 2023.

 

So Zelenskyy wants to join NATO and Putin threatens war if he does not back down but offers neutrality if they stay non aligned militarily to any side, Zelenskyy refuses to back down knowing war will follow but is sure the west will save him and of course Putin invades as millions of Ukraine citizens have to flee as the fear of war spreads killing god knows how many soldiers and civilians making millions homeless, Then Zelenskyy now says they do not want to join NATO and would accept neutrality!! Zelenskyy has brought death and destruction on his country and its people needlessly while committing war crimes on his own people by hiding his army in civilian buildings, What a needless mess Zelenskyy created.
Of course Russia would have settled for them agreeing to go neutral in the beginning but as they had to use force will now want something for the cost of war so will want the Donbass to compensate them

 

Eventually when this disaster comes to an end will sanctions be lifted, if not who makes the call how long they remain, who's going to tell Russia they must hand Putin over for the war crimes he's responsible for, who pays for the rebuilding of the Ukraine and compensation for the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainians caught in this illegal invasion.

 

Latest with regards the invasion of the Ukraine : Negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have concluded for the day with Kyiv putting forward a new security guarantee proposal that could lead to the country accepting neutral status in return for the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Time will tell but any movement has got to be good for the people of Ukraine.

 

The point of war is to settle who has advantage in peace talks to end it, I would suggest as the Ukraine is the one offering major concessions the widely uk media reports of Russia losing are very much wide of the truth and more politically led fake news

 

I don't think many people have said Russia are losing more they are not hitting their targets and have been delayed

 

A very poor situation in this day and age, whoever is declared the winner (if there can be a winner out of this situation) it will take the people of Ukraine decades to get back to any sort of normality and hopefully likewise with Russia if the sanctions are kept in place or will the need for oil and wheat see those sanctions watered down.

 

Think they have hit most targets as the Ukrainian army has been hit badly as far as tanks, planes etc which is what Putins stated aim was to begin with to degrade Ukraine military, Not sure they have been delayed as Putin did say he would avoid civilian casualties by surrounding towns drawing the Ukrainian forces out to meet them and not go in to them, The attacks on the towns have been at military targets unfortunately including blocks of flats where the Ukraine hid its forces.
The sooner this is over the more lives on both sides will be saved and the refugees can hopefully go home and rebuild there lives which will not be easy, A needless war which has devastated Ukraine

 

Watching a video clip with regards some Ukrainian prisoners who were released from Russia to return to their home land Ukraine, a guy was telling of a 15 year old Ukraine girl who was handed around and gang raped by Russian soldiers, when her mother tried to intervene she was taken outside and shot, and this piece of shit Putin has the gall to call the Ukrainian's Nazi's, I do hope they can one way or another bring Putin to trial for war crimes, I wont be holding my breath.

 

Sorry but, whatever he may have said, the idea that Russia/Putin would have accepted neutrality before the war started is naive in the extreme. Zelensky wanted Ukraine to join NATO for defensive purposes because he knew full well that Putin has never accepted Ukrainian independence from Russia. Putin has been itching to bring it fully back into the fold since his puppet leader was booted out by the Ukrainian electorate. Putin simply does not accept that Ukraine is a sovereign country - he regards it as a region of Russia - 'the Ukraine' rather than 'Ukraine'. His views on this are well known and have been repeated by him many times.

This view that Ukraine is not a sovereign independent country is a widely held viewpoint in Russia that has a long history. Two days ago the BBC Russian editor reported this:

'On the eve of the talks, I watched Russian state TV's flagship weekly news show - it's a useful barometer of what the Kremlin is thinking. The presenter quoted at length a Russian philosopher and theologian from 90 years ago.
"Russia cannot and must not lose Ukraine... it must be part of Russia, even against Ukraine's will... if Ukraine wants to fight with Russia, let it. But whatever price Russia pays for such a war, it will fight to the victorious end." '

This is clearly not the view of a country/regime/leader that is satisfied with Ukranian neutrality.

It is totally understandable that Zelensky wanted to join NATO for protection, knowing that Putin - having already illegally annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas - was biding his time to invade and subjugate the rest of Ukraine. Any independent country in the position of being bordered by a military superpower with obvious designs on its territory would have sought protection from a large neighbouring defensive alliance.

As for your repeated assertion of Zelensky 'hiding his army in civilian buildings' - where do expect him to station them - out in the open fields? Did you expect them to go charging into open battle where they can be easily pinpointed and blown to smithereens by the far superior Russian air and artillery power? A smaller army defending its territory against a much larger, more powerful invading force has to use whatever cover it can get to even up the odds. If Russia didn't want to get bogged down in a guerrilla war then it shouldn't have invaded in the first place.

It's perfectly clear that Russian bombardment of Ukrainian urban areas has gone far beyond the targeting of hiding Ukrainian soldiers. They are obliterating entire towns and neighbourhoods. They are employing the same scorched earth tactics they used in Syria - destroying entire settlements, large and small, to try to break the Ukrainian population's will to resist. It is estimated that 5,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol alone. This is not targeted attacks on Ukrainian troops - it is systematic genocide.

BBC News - Ukraine War: Putin demands Mariupol surrender to end shelling
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60926470

Putin thought his army was going to waltz into Ukraine, occupy major cities and be either welcomed as liberators or met with surrender. His goal was always to restore Ukraine to a Russian province. He badly miscalculated so, faced with his army in disarray and retreat, he has resorted to flattening whatever he can and bombing the population into submission.

 

There are also clips of Ukrainian soldiers viciously torturing and murdering Russians. I would have thought you would be mature and wise enough to know there are always two sides to each story, and that there is always a political agenda with what the media are shoving down your throat.

And Putin is correct, by the way, Ukraine does have a sizeable nazi movement which has been endorsed by the government and even by OUR media (they will do anything as long as it's anti-Russia!) .. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1/who-are-the-azov-regiment.

Are you oblivious to this, or do you just choose to listen to what anti-Russian media tell you?

"On Monday, Ukraine’s national guard tweeted a video showing Azov fighters coating their bullets in pig fat to be used allegedly against Muslim Chechens – allies of Russia – deployed in their country."

 

Is there any need for your personal insults, you can put your point over without resorting to that.

 

Ukraine is being obliterated with missile attacks yet some in the media seem fixated with this Azov' regiment. I see it mentioned regularly by folk with a Russian bias. Not sure why.

 

The Ukrainian armed forces are around 200,000 in number (estimates vary somewhat, but not drastically). The Azov fighters are a regiment of roughly 900 men - so, less than one 200th of their total forces. And this single regiment, in a population of 44 million, is a 'sizeable' Nazi movement, is it? A big enough issue to justify illegally invading another sovereign country?

 

There were no personal insults there.

 

I can't speak for the media but I personally was responding to Bronco's statement of "and this piece of shit Putin has the gall to call the Ukrainian's Nazi's" to clarify that there is, indeed Nazi element(s) in Ukraine.